


A Shoulder To Cry On

by Kuraagins



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, its super super mild though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14698866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuraagins/pseuds/Kuraagins
Summary: In which Hanschen is vying for Ernst's attention, but he always seems more focused on other boys in the class.





	A Shoulder To Cry On

**Author's Note:**

> I had this story kind of floating around my head for a while so I decided to finally get it down :)

At the beginning of the year, Hanschen took his place at the back of the media classroom. Of course, he immediately regretted this when the bright-eyed Ernst Robel wandered in and tentatively took a seat between Anna and Georg. 

Hanschen was attracted to him of course, despite the fact that he ended up being a total swot, always handing his essays in on time and swiftly answering any questions asked to the class. He was so sweet though, Hanschen would listen in on his conversations at the front (it wasn’t really eavesdropping if he was being that loud) and would practically swoon every time he let out that melodic laugh. 

Unfortunately for him, Ernst probably had no idea who he was. After all, he sat at the back of the room and rarely answered any questions in class, making him even more reluctant to talk to the boy outside of the classroom. 

He does notice, however, that during the first few weeks of the new school year, Ernst spent a lot of time gazing dreamily at Otto Lammemeier. Which irritated Hanschen to no end. 

“I need to borrow a pen,” Otto asked their teacher one day. 

“I don’t have one Otto you’ll have to ask someone e-“

“I have one!” Ernst interjected, hastily leaning over to rifle through his bag to pull out a pen triumphantly. 

When Otto trailed across the classroom to grab the pen from Ernst’s sweaty hand with a mumbled “Thank you,” Hanschen sees how his cheeks illuminated pink and he rolled his eyes at how much better Ernst can do than Otto fucking Lammemeier. 

He finds out from Melchior – who sat next to Ernst in English - that the pair had attended the same summer camp and Ernst had practically fallen in love with Otto over the four weeks that they had spent together. However due to them being in separate rooms and not doing any activities together, Otto had no clue who Ernst was apart from the odd passing conversation. 

Hanschen frowned, knowing that if Ernst had given him that kind of attention, he would have been all over that boy in a heartbeat. 

They get put in groups of three for a week-long research task, and whilst Hanschen’s frustrated to be put with Melchior and Thea, he at least pretends to be happy for Ernst, who gets put with Otto and Marianna. Until Ernst quickly got pushed to the side to do all of the work as the other two sat and chatted happily. 

A few days later, Ernst entered the classroom and Hanschen saw his heart shatter as he walked in to the scene of Marianna and Otto holding hands, laughing and leaning against each other. He didn’t complain though, just plastered on a smile and got on with the work for all three of them. 

\----------

Before Christmas arrives, Hanschen noticed that Ernst’s gaze had drifted over to Bobbly Maler, and he really couldn’t deal with that because that crush was even worst than Otto. Bobby was notorious for three things: drugs, partying, and flying through partners faster than Melchior starting an argument. Everyone seemed to know this. Everyone apart from Ernst, who ended up asking Melchior for help and switched seats with him so that he could sit closer to Bobby. 

Unlike Otto, Bobby absolutely relished in all of the attention Ernst was giving him, and eventually ended up asking for his number. It made Haschen feel a little sick to see Bobby feign coyness as he snatched Ernst’s phone off it to get his number outside of the class one day. 

Melchior being the bridge between Hanschen and Ernst meant that he was constantly pestering him for information on the other boy. He learned that one weekend, Bobby and Ernst went on a date. No sleeping together, or even just half-heartedly hanging around at one of their houses. An actual date. 

Apparently, they went to the cinema to watch a horror movie, wherein Ernst got scared and snuggled his face into Bobby’s chest, who was cracking jokes all the way through to try and cheer him up. Afterwards they walked up to McDonalds and for some reason Bobby let Ernst pay for him (and really, how expensive can McDonald’s be?) and got a lift home from Ernst’s mother. 

After that though, nothing happened between them. They still sat together in class and laughed and talked loudly, but there was never any physical affection between them. Bobby was totally blasé about the whole situation, but Ernst was clearly desperate for Bobby to like him in a romantic context. 

“So, my parents are out of town this weekend and I’m having a little get together with some of my friends,” Hanschen overheard Ernst saying to Bobby one day, “I was wondering if you’d like to come? There’s room for you to stay over as well, if you need.” 

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Bobby responded, “I’ll bring a couple of my friends over too, they’d hunt me down if they knew I was at a gaff without them,”

Ernst visibly tensed at this. “I don’t really want anyone doing drugs at my house though. I know some of my friends aren’t really comfortable with it, and my parents would kill me if they found out,” 

“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll only bring weed and we’ll smoke it outside if you want,” Bobby shrugged and went back to his work, completely oblivious to how anxious Ernst looked, biting his lip and bouncing his leg frantically.

“Weed is still a drug asshole!” Hanschen wanted to yell, annoyed at how uncaring Bobby was to Ernst’s feelings, but Hanschen still didn’t really know either of them and shouldn’t have been listening in on the conversation anyway, so he stayed silent. 

The Monday after the supposed ‘little get together’, Ernst moved back to his seat at the front of the class with Anna and Georg and didn’t speak to Bobby for a good few weeks. Hanschen would later learn that Bobby had invited fifteen of his own friends to Ernst’s house, who had invited fifty more people, which had obviously not ended well. Disasters included (but were not limited too): The television getting smashed; Bobby getting laid in Ernst’s parent’s bed; Ulbrecht lighting a bin on fire after trying to set off a firework; and a plethora of people doing ket off the toilet seat. 

If it were up to Hanschen, he’d beat Bobby senseless for disrespecting Ernst like that, but apparently the other boy was contented to take the grounding from his parents and forgive Bobby as if he’d done something as mundane as accidentally trip him over. 

\----------

When they move into the computer room the next term to work on their coursework, Hanschen does not make the same mistake he made at the beginning of the year. Swiftly weaving his way through the rest of the class deciding where to sit, he placed his hand on the chair next to Ernst – who was tucked away in the corner – and asked “Can I sit here?” 

Ernst being the sweet boy that he was, beamed at Hanschen and immediately responded, “Of course!” and Hanschen could have literally jumped for joy right there and then. 

He didn’t of course. Instead he smiled calmly and took his seat next to the gorgeous boy, opening up the video editing software. 

Over the next few weeks Hanschen slowly got to know Ernst better. At first it was just casual small talk; “How are you?”, “What lesson have you got next?”, “Will you give me some advice on how to edit this?” But soon enough Hanschen knew that Ernst’s favourite Eurovision winner of all time was Alexander Rybak; he still listened to Fall out Boy and My Chemical Romance unironically; his lucky number was four; he did jazz and tap-dancing lessons on a Tuesday night and he wanted to be an actor when he grew up – and if that failed he was going to become a priest. Seriously. 

Hanschen also started to pick up on small pedestrian movements that Ernst would do, too. Like when he was concentrating really hard, he’d nibble at his lip and run a hand through his hair. Or, the way he’d run his hand up his forearm when his was nervous about critique on his work (which was always flawless, by the way.)

He also couldn’t help but notice the way Ernst would smile politely whenever Melchior would come over to speak to them, but the minute he was walking away Ernst would roll his eyes and scoff quietly.

“What’s up with you and Melchior then?” Hanschen asked once, after one such incident. 

“Nothing!” Ernst hastily replied, fixing that sunny smile back onto his face, “Melchior’s cool.”

“You really think that? Because I think he’s kind of an ass,” Hanschen offered. 

Ernst looked around conspiratorially, before scootching his chair closer to Hanschen and lowering his voice so he wouldn’t be heard. 

“So, you know we have English together right?” He murmured, and Hanschen nodded his head yes, “He’s always such a jerk to me. He always copies off my work but the one time that I needed help on a vocab test he covered his paper with his arm so I couldn’t copy! And whenever I’m off sick I ask him to send me the work they did because I don’t know anyone else in the class, but he always says something dumb like ‘oh we didn’t actually do anything today’ when clearly they did!” Ernst’s voice was gradually getting louder, but Hanschen really didn’t want to shush him. “Oh – and he always tries to start an argument with the teacher. Like, I know you’re so self-centred that you think everyone wants to know your opinion on everything Melchior, but really all we want from you is to be quiet!”

Ernst instantly blushes with embarrassment at the end of his uncharacteristic rant, but all Hanschen could do was grin stupidly. Anyone that disliked Melchior immediately became ten times more attractive in his eyes.

\----------

As the date for their coursework deadline drew nearer, Hanschen noticed that Ernst was taking a lot of time away from his computer to help Bobby out with his work. Bobby, in the meantime, was spending most of his time distracting Ernst. If he couldn’t manage to drag him away from the computer he was constantly in his face and trying to talk to him.  
“Will you come out into the field with me to take photos Ernst?” He asked one time, “I really need your help,”

Ernst looked from the computer where he had loaded up his footage and then back to Bobby. “I don’t know… I’m wearing the same clothes as last time I modelled for you, you should probably get a bit more diversity in your work,” He excused weakly. 

“Oh no, I’ve got someone else to model, I just want you to come with me,” Bobby stated.

Ernst hesitated, knowing that he needed to focus on his own work but being too nice to say no to Bobby. “Twenty minutes.” He offered eventually. 

“Twenty minutes,” Bobby affirmed with a smile. 

Ernst managed to make it back five minutes before the lesson; out of breath, with swollen eyes and a runny nose. 

“Ernst are you alright?” Hanschen exclaimed, alarmed by the boy’s appearance. 

“It’s just my hay fever,” He sniffed, followed by a hacking cough, “Bobby, of course, just wanted to muck about with his friends in the field instead of actually doing work. I don’t understand why he always asks me to go with him to places! I don’t even think he likes me platonically anymore, he definitely thinks I’m too much of a prude. Plus, he only cares 

“You look a little stressed today Ernst; do you want to talk about it?” Was probably the sentence that frustrated Hanschen the most. Because yes, Ernst was looking a little stressed, but it was all Bobby’s fault and he had no right to suddenly pretend to care about Ernst just because he was bored.   
about himself. You know, the other day he asked me to go for lunch with him even though he knows I don’t have any money to buy myself food and didn’t even spend the lunch break with me. He got in the line, bought his food and then made me wait outside with him for his bus to arrive so he could go home. He didn’t even offer me one chicken nugget to apologise for making me waste my time hanging around his lousy ass!” Ernst flopped into a chair and lowered his head onto the desk in frustration. “I just don’t know how to tell him I expect more from a friendship without hurting his feelings.”

“Ernst, I think he’s hurt your feelings badly enough. He doesn’t deserve someone as cool as you.” Hanschen sighed.

“I just don’t understand… He was so nice to me on the date we went on, what happened?” Ernst whined.

“He’s Bobby Maler, he’ll always be an inconsiderate asshole.” Hanschen attempted to joke to lighten the mood, but Ernst didn’t laugh. 

“I bet you think I’m stupid for complaining about all this,” He muttered, folding his arms in on himself.

“What? No! Ernst, I think you’re fantastic! You’re funny and smart and you’re so good at media but you still make sure you dedicate time to helping everyone else, and you’re so nice, I don’t know how you manage to forgive Bobby after all the crap he’s done for you but you’re just incredible and I’ve had the biggest crush on since September-“ Hanschen slapped a hand over his mouth and cursed himself over and over again in his head as Ernst looked at him with wide eyes.

“Me? You have a crush on me?” He questioned quietly.

When Hanschen whispered back, “Yes,” Ernst promptly burst into tears, causing Hanschen to begin to hysterically apologise.

“No, no it’s not you,” Ernst sobbed, “I’m sorry it’s just – no one’s ever liked me before, never mind say all of those nice things,”

Hanschen fished a tissue out of his bag and handed it to the crying boy. “Would I be able to – maybe – take you out on a date then? A real one?” He asked delicately yet hopefully.

“Of course!” Ernst laughed between his tears and pulled Hanschen into a hug, “And I promise I won’t cry on you again.”

And as cheesy as it was, Hanschen replied with: “I promise you Ernst, my shoulder is always there for you to cry on,”

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment if you enjoyed!! Thank you for reading <3


End file.
